This is my life – a few chapters anyway

“After university, I sidestepped the legal profession to pursue my interest in writing. I was captivated by many forms of music – anything with soul, intensity, honesty – and wanted to learn how to use language to explore my relationship to sound. Call it a calling but was there a career in it? I had to find out.”

It's rare someone passes the mic and invites me to reflect on my career as a writer. But Todd L Burns is that gracious kinda guy. His Music Journalism Insider newsletter is always a treat – unparalleled in scope and depth.

Trust me, the tributaries you will go down are going to change the way to listen to and think about music. Please subscribe and let Todd blow your mind on a weekly basis.

My interview with him is here.

Apologies for the self-congratulatory image but It’s the one words-related award I have held in my hands, that a big team helped to deliver. For you, mum.

And I am usually head down in the engine room, so the professional archive is thin.

Dixie Chicks: cancelled?

Were The Chicks (fka Dixie Chicks) the first internet cancellation? If so, who was behind it and how did the group survive it? For this episode of Broccoli Productions podcast Cancelled, I travelled back to 2003 when one anti-war comment turned country music's darlings into disgraced "Saddam Lovers". A curious lens through which to consider free speech, patriotism, the mechanics of a boycott and the consequences of dissent. And while you’re here, have you heard the one about Janet Jackson and the night America lost it over a nipple?

Words to be heard

Part of my expanding repertoire is scripting. It’s a natural evolution from my copywriting and journalism but offers a little more room to develop a narrative through a character. A voice that’s written to be spoken, with a wider register, real emotions, inflections n’all. How far you go depends on the subject matter and audience, of course.

The main challenge with a podcast is to not overwhelm the listener with information and to be able to hold their attention without revealing too much too soon. You’re not writing an essay or dictating a thesis. You need to build momentum by the line. There needs to be dynamism in the delivery, particularly if the story is going to be told by one person without the benefit of other voices in interview clips, songs and other sounds to prick the ears.

I hope I have achieved that with my first contribution to Broccoli series Cancelled, which tells the stories of controversial attempts to cancel celebrities, companies and brands. At their best, these episodes go beyond sanctimonious witch hunts and retrospective mob justice. They allow us to consider history with fresh eyes/ears and to get a better understanding of the culture part in #cancelculture. The darker forces at play.

The picture above should need no caption but Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” at Super Bowl 2004 – and the toxic fallout – definitely require an explanation. How a viral TV moment and a personal vendetta derailed one artist's career, boosted another ( 👋  Justin Timberlake ) and inflamed the war on indecency. It also gave us YouTube and foretold our ravenous hunger for instant-replay footage on social media.

Short but with a long tail and quite entertaining, not least in the hands of your host Cameron Bernard Jones. Take a listen, share your thoughts or memories and please spread the word if you like it. More coming.

It’s also available on Apple Podcasts.

PS A four-part autobiographical documentary is available via Now TV so check that for the final word from Janet on the night America lost its mind over a nipple.